These numbers aren't so bad come on..we're at 688,435 (tot currently infected) and 37,255 (new cases) as of today in Italy

SnoBird1:
Guys help me out, my girlfriend is like a python. I only get in to hack her but I never come out successfully without a trace.. Each time I off her she supposly gets to find out it was me all around

p.s.. I Love her that much

Yes.

If the man is already rich and even just decent looking, he'll have such a big pool to choose from that any entitled, poor chick is not gonna make the cut. Sorry but choosing works both ways - if a woman is attracted to me just due to my bank account, why in HELL would I want to have anything to do with her? On top of it, if I'm rich enough that she's interested in me, I'm rich enough to afford the most beautiful women around without the need to tie myself to any of them.

I've never felt the need to "believe". Of course I've asked myself the big questions ("Where do we come from", "what's the meaning of life", "what happens after death" etc), but I've never felt the need to believe in something just to have an answer (probably wrong) to said questions.

I gave the Bible a shot; after reading it I'm of the idea that the Christian God is a bloodthirsty maniac guilty of filicide at minimum. The Quran was not much better (let's not even start with some of the fawtas or their basis in the Sunnah), while the Tanakh/Hebrew Bible didn't really offer me any special "insight".

Do I have an answer to the "big questions"? Hell no! But at least I know (or have a very strong inkling) that the answers mainstream religions give are just plain wrong, so I'll have to look elsewhere, or come up with some answer of my own.

So far I got:
- Meaning of life: I don't think there is any intrinsic meaning to life. In very simple terms, as you live your life you'll form your own moral code - you will be your own judge in the end (regarding if you lived a good life or not).
- Where do we come from: Evolution is pretty much a certainty just due to the overwhelming evidence we have (there are animals that have evolved adaptations over the past century, we can literally point to living proofs of Evolution).
- What comes after Death? Good luck with this one. I guess we're all gonna get an answer sooner or later, so if there is an afterlife - see you there brothers!

This was just a quick reflection, which I think it's shared by many of the more secular members of society.

I asked an albino if he was a ghost. He slapped me and then asked if I still thought he was a ghost.

That day I learned that while "normal" (pass through walls etc) ghosts might not exist, that ghost sure worked out man, I tell you.

Apart from jokes no, I've never seen a ghost.

HeavenlyCherub:
Hello,

I’m just trying to gain insight from those who are married and others alike.

OPTION 1

Exception: Both of you keep the money you had prior to the marriage.

Option 1 there’s no his money and my money, you are 1. All income earned goes into the home.

So in this case all our income will go into a joint account (account A). From that account there will be a transfer of money out into
1. My separate account
2. His separate account
3. Our joint savings account

Amounts that go into 1 and 2 will be equal.

We spend on bills etc from account A. We will discuss jointly on lavish spending from account A e.g. vacations and kids stuff.

Whatever happens in account 1 is my business, no questions asked. If I save it all and want to buy an island fine. If I want to give my friends money, fine. Its from my allowance, not from the home.


OPTION 2

You both put in a percentage of your income into the joint account and keep a %. For example that if 1 brings in $100,000 a month and you bring $50,000.. both will agree to 10% of their individual earnings for the joint account.

OPTION 3

One spouse keeps both salaries and disburses it when it is needed.

I’m just curious. What method works for you?

Magic solution: to each his/her own - separate bank accounts and split any common expense 50-50.

Miracle, I just solved the perennial question of how to avoid fights about $$.

huxley:
I would like to see someone who has been bullet-proofed submit to test at a firing range. Don't you think that this would be more objective.

Or similar still, bullet-proof a goat, pig, or cow and test if the animal is resistant to bullet. That is what I would do before paying for such services.

It'd be very easy to set up as well - just buy a random animal, make him "bullet proof", shoot it and see the results. My money is on it being dead at that point, but that's just me.

I'm just gonna point out how Edo state lies on the Niger river. If Nigeria was divided into its constituent states, it'd be very easy to set up a regional agreement to declare the Niger an international waterway (e.g. the Danube here in Europe), thus ensuring access to the Sea. Notice how Switzerland was able to build a pretty large (for a landlocked country) high sea commercial fleet via the river connection (Danube -> Black Sea -> Mediterrean Sea)

A boy becomes a man when he can take responsability for his own actions.
It's the reason there are so many manchildren nowadays all around the world.

A random thought from a non-Nigerian: if the distribution company is so bad, wouldn't it be easier to just buy small solar panels? For example - on Aliexpress one can find solar panels as low as 0.10$ (0.5 V), or as high as 1000 V

SLAP44:
Nigeria has lost this battle, when you see a whole presidency descending low enough to fight propaganda wars with a unit of the country, the leadership has lost the fight.

It's only a matter of time before everything caves in.

This happens in the West as well, don't be surprised - any time the PM/President/"whatever title the leader has" wants to look tough and a province/region of the nation is ruled by the opposition party(ies), accuses of corruption and propaganda campaigns start to appear like mushrooms

Flash news: the vast majority of women are entitled as hell wherever you go. Laugh as much as you want but it's a common myth around here that women from around the Gulf of Guinea are way more traditional than Western women. Guess the people saying that are wrong

I'm gonna resurrect this thread just to say "Hi".

I woke up in a bush in the city park while missing my pants. I saw a hobo wearing them 2 weeks later in that same park.

2 1/2 months of lockdown did manage to defeat the virus over here in Italy, but said lockdown also broke the economic back of the nation, with many people literally living off welfare and unable to find any kind of job right now. If you already went through a lockdown, 2 more months might very well kill off the entire economy of your nation to be honest.

The new guy will probably have his way with you and then disappear. On the other hand if you're falling out of love with your current boyfriend, nothing stops you from moving on - just be honest and pick one or the other in the end.

mespusinglez:
JUST TWO HOURS IT'S NOT MUCH NA

If he HAD to go there and didn't want to go..well what do you expect?

Dunno if you got decent female barbers, but never found one that could compare to a male one here in Italy. They're all about fashion and bullshit while I simply want a damn haircut.

Some strange/different kind of "jobs" you could pick up in the meantime:
> Data analyst in the field - many companies hire around the world or will buy your data if they're worth it. This could be anything from market research to prospecting.
> Youtube - if you can get in, you can still pull in hundreds if not thousands of american dollars - livestreaming, ads, etc.
> Working online if you got IT training and/or skills

Then you got the stranger jobs, like counting cards at blackjack etc.

Seriously tho - online is your best bet.

rebirthforgoody:
At least 45million for starting oooh please am very tired don't quote me okay

Aka 100k Euro? That's a lot.

This will be a quick introduction to the concept of professional card counting as a second income option.

Professional gambling is a profession that a lot of people dream about - who wouldn't want to go to sleep with loaded pockets when the others have to get up to go work for a boss they dislike, in an endless 9-to-5 grind?

While I am not a professional card counter by any means (I am simply an actuary with a deep passion for math and luck-based chance games), nor am I at a level of skill comparable to a true professional (not by a long shot), counting cards is something that I have done for the last 8 odd years weekend in, weekend out - sometimes with very low bets, sometimes with much higher ones. Having some free time, I thought it might be beneficial for other Nairalanders if I were to share some basics about counting cards, in case anyone out there was seriously thinking about trying it out.

What is Counting Cards?
In its essence, the act of counting the value of the cards remaining in a deck you (the dealer and the players) are playing with at a casino/club. This is done in order to be allow the player to gain an edge on the house (adjusting his/her bets accordingly) and make a profit off the game.

What Counting Cards is not:
It is not an easy, simple way to get rich. While the basic premise seems easy enough, especially when paired with a basic methodology (+1-1), the act itself is much harder to take to its natural end that one would expect. Why is that? Because of many reasons. For example, many times the dealer knows you are counting, or at least he will have a strong suspect and will act upon it, making the act of counting much harder for you. Other times you will have fooled the dealer, but even then playing the standard 6-decks sabot while counting will make your head spin. Pair this with a long-day (aka from 12 to 14 hours straight) of game and drinking to keep up appearances, and one can imagine that to actually make money off counting cards you will need to be ready to invest time and money, while possessing steel nerves.

How is it accomplished?
While there are a lot of methodologies, both for the individual and for the group, the most iconic is the simple +1/-1 previously mentioned, which consists in designing value to the various decks you will be playing with (a typical sabot is played with 6 decks in Italy, but I know that in many areas of the worlds you can easily find 2 or even 1 deck sabot, making the act of counting cards much easier) and then adding or subtracting value during the game, while adjusting one's bets depending on the true value of the hand.

While this methodology is pretty true and tested, I'd personally invite anyone serious about learning how to count cards to study and find for himself which method works better - I have yet to find a lot of players that agree on which is the best methodology to use. The only advice I can give is - once you found something that works, stick to your guns. Simplicity and reliability accomplish more over the course of a long game than a more profitable but unreliable methodology.

How profitable is it?
The 1 million dollar question. You can expect to make from 1/4 to 1/2 of your bet per hour once you start to gain confidence and learn the ins and outs of the method you chose to follow (about this, while sticking to your guns is good, do try to not get too stuck in a paradigm). If you are ready to be thousands of dollars, you will be able to achieve a lot, while if you want to stick to lower bets you will make comparatively less, simple as that.

Having said this, there are a lot of circumstances that might alter your profit-per-hour (for example not calling a particularly good hand to not give yourself away to the dealer, or simply sitting out certain hands), one could estimate that it could be possible to make 1$/hand dealt if the player had a constant 1% advantage over the house, for an average of 50$ +/- per hour (presuming that a player would be dealt an average of 100 hands per hour) . Personally speaking, I find this a handy if unreliable estimate: there have been days when I averaged around 100$/hour, days when I just sat out after a losing streak, and days when the average earning might have been around the estimate. Like I said before, it's really situational.

But, this should really not bother a person that was serious about learning how to count cards. Just compare yourself to a farmer - you may not know exactly the moment when you will be paid, but you know that the investment will pay dividends in the end.

To give a practical example as well as a practical advice on how to start, I started with 300 euros that would not have been sorely missed had I lost them. i began with average bets in the order of 10 euros or a little higher, and then started ramping up the average bet over the years as I began to acquire confidence in myself as a player. I would advise you all who want to try counting cards to put away a little war chest for this purpose (let me repeat this point - do not play with money you would miss if you lost it. If you count cards you play to win, not just to play and probably lose like the majority of people) and to play only with said money, alongside a percentage of your winnings.

One can decide for himself how much put away/reinvest in the game, but I found out a 55/45 split between reinvesting and putting away is a good compromise - of course everyone will find for himself the optimal split in this regard.

Should I pay a program to learn how to count cards?
I did not pay anybody to teach me - I simply checked out the books necessary at the local library. Having said this there are people that prefer a class environment. If you are one of said people, sure go ahead and enroll in a program, be in person or online. I simply advise people to try the self-help way first. It's cheaper.

Which books did you read?
Various books. Among them the classical "Beat the Dealer" of O.Thorp (even tho many of its indications are not appliable today, it is a must-read for any serious counter), "Blackjack for Blood: The Card-Counters' Bible and Complete Winning Guide" of Bryce Carlson (bought this one, very recent) and "Modern Card Counting: Blackjack", by Patrick Linsenmeyer. Of course there are endless good books about the argument, but these are three that really stuck out to me.

Many Counters play in group/this is the stereotypical setting - how real is it?
I won't lie - if you are really serious about making card counting your lifestyle, playing in a "professional" team might be for the best. On the other hand, if your objective is not to earn millions (and yes, it is well within the real of possibility. Various famous counters earned millions and some even tens of millions) but simply to create a 2nd form of income (that just so happens to be an enjoyable passion at the same time), you can very well go ahead alone in this world. It might make things a bit harder, but it is also easier at the same time.

"There are few casinos/clubs in my area! What can I do?"
Travel. There is no middle way. The natural place for a card counter is at a Blackjack table. If there is no table, there is no counting cards. Simple as that.

Note: the values I express are in dollars and euros since I live in Europe. If you live in Nigeria, you will play in the local currency and will bet in said currency, ergo convert/re-size what I said for your own local reality. Same thing for people that live out of Nigeria that happen to read this brief piece: if your currency is anything other than $ or euros, simply use your own local standards and apply them to the game.

I hope this brief piece gave everybody something interesting to think about and that it might have been helpful - if it has been, it has accomplished its purpose.

Have a good day!

Over here we say - when I am single, I want someone; when I do get someone to be with, I cannot wait to get rid of them.

Forget the bs about your partner being your best friend - while there will always be some attraction for a best friend of the opposite sex, a long-term friendship is often much more important than a relationship, since the latter will often break after a few years, but a true friendship will last a lifetime!

I do not pretend to have all the answers, but I think it might be worthwhile to write down some suggestions that I found myself giving to friends and family over the years, about how to achieve a degree of happiness in life (regardless of where one lives).

NOTE: this is written from a western perspective, with a caveat that migrating to a prosperous country (not always synonym with a western country, but let's face it - almost always) will help massively in achieving happiness.

To start, what does one need in life to be happy?

According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, one has (in order of importance):
a) Physiological needs (food, water, shelter etc)
b) Safety needs (personal security, financial security etc)
c) Love (intimacy with someone else, family love etc)
d) Esteem (self-respect and self-esteem in general)
e) Self-realization/actualization (the need to reach our dreams, such as becoming a parent, a politician, a businessman etc)

The main way to achieve a and b is to land a good-paying job. This will allow one to cover his physiological and safety needs, while giving enough financial freedom (over time) to try and achieve one's dreams later on.

What are fields that pay well enough?
a) Medicine (almost all sub-fields)
b) Engineering (still almost-all, but less than Medicine. e.g. do not specialize in Civil Engineering in the West)
c) Statistics, math and related sub-fields (keep away from theoretical subjects, gravitate more toward actuary statistics and you are golden)
Honorable mentions: IT and Economics-related bachelors have much lower chances at achieving a great salary, but still better than let's say Philosophy

For those who don't know, I am an Italian actuary but I travel (USA, UK, Germany, France and Singapore primarily) very often for work-related reasons; I can say with a decent degree (pun intended) of certainty that the situation is the same all over the place in regards to qualifications.

Going back to the list of needs, Love and Esteem can only be attained individually - sadly there is no magic trick to find the right person to be happy with. Having said that, one can watch out for red flags.

Love:
Dating too much outside of your comfort zone is not the way to go if one wants a long-lasting relationship (but it totally is if one cares only about having fun!). This is due to the fact that in such a relationship one of the two partners will have to change (sometimes radically) in order to make it work - this will lead to resentment toward the other partner and will be cause of issues later on, be either a break-up or resentment and unhappiness.

NOTEs: by "Comfort Zone" I mean your culture, set of ideas, ideals - whatever you want to call it, the "ensemble" of one's own beliefs. While race is not a huge issue in the dating world, when the culture is too divergent it may very well be another factor creating tension. Practical example: a Nigerian guy and an Eskimo girl will have issues due to their divergent cultures the same way that an Italian guy will have when dating a Singaporean girl (or a French guy with a chinese girl etc, you get the point); while the fact that one's SO is of a difference race might not be an issue for the two lovebirds, it might very well be for their families/friends/group of peers. Depending on the importance their respective cultures (and the people themselves) place on said other groups approval, this might cause problems in the relationship itself.

Esteem:
Esteem is something that only you can give yourself, since it must come from within and not without. If this is not the case, we got a problem in the form of attention-starved individuals - and nobody likes a desperate man/woman, remember that, be it on the work or in the dating field.

Having said that one can raise his own self-esteem by feeling "accomplished" and/or "helpful". You can do this by various means - e.g. take up a hobby and get very good at it; open a business and be relatively successful; find something you excel at and practice it; become a volunteer and help your local community...the possibilities are endless. Remember only that lazyness is the mother of all evils and you should be good to go.

Regarding depressed people (not the fake-emo bs, but ones who actually got real issues), I would really advise to get professional help. Sometimes even just moving abroud (or in another part of the country you live in) might help. Get well.

Self-realization/Actualization:

Now THIS is where one finds true happiness. If you reached this stage, you have covered all the basic needs and can now finally focus on yourself and your own life. Once more, I cannot tell anybody how to live their lives and how to achieve one's own self-realization, but I can surely tell you that you shouldn't think of this as a task to be completed - simply live your life! I assure you that you will find something that will make you happy doing. Once you found it, just keep doing it! It is that simple.

Many people say "I do not know what to do with my life". Bullshit. They know perfectly what they would love to do with their lives, but are either too scared to actually do it, or messed up somewhere along the way (unwanted children, loss of job due to mistakes, it could be anything) and thus cannot physically do it. The solution to the first is "Just do it!"; to the second issue "Do not screw up in the first place!" or, if you have already screwed up, simply solve the issue and move on!

NOTE: while I do not personally condone this, I will admit that there are cases in which the only way to win and move on with your life is to run for the hills from your problems - especially if the rules are stacked against you. While the honorable and right thing to do is to live up to one's mistakes and just hit issues head-on, sometimes even doing the right thing might land us in jail and/or make us face punishment from authority. In this case, there is no shame in admitting defeat and starting over.

Miscellaneous tips:
a) Always try your best at everything you do - not doing so will make you feel cheap and unaccomlished.
b) On the other hand, if you try your best and still fail, do not blame yourself - if you truly gave it all, rest in peace with yourself.
c) Sometimes admitting defeat is the only way to move on. Do not be the retard that cannot ever admit to be wrong.
d) Do not screw up. Seriously don't - it is always easier to avoid making a mess than solving one. It costs less and takes less time.

Just a final thought from myself that can be applied to any culture - the issue of children and marriage.

If one wishes to marry and put up a family, please make sure that you are not bringing kids in this world just to give them a miserable life, while becoming miserable yourself (before anyone think "won't affect me if I run away" - yes it will. Even if no one every catches you and/or you suffer no physical consequences, enjoy asking yourself for years "what could have been had I not ran away". The easiest way to achieve this is to get a job in one of the fields I listen previously.

On the other hand, think long and hard if marriage and/or a family life is for you. I can tell you (from seeing this happen time and time again, all over the world) that many find out years later that this is not what they truly wanted and that they got married only because they were acting purely on emotions. This is a sure way to screw things up.

And with this I conclude this little post. I just hope it might help you all brothers and sisters.

PS: take note of what I wrote earlier - if you find that where you live will simply not provide opportunities to be happy - move! It is that simple. The easy way to move is to get a decent degree and obtain a love-term visa for specialist work. It is easier than one thinks if you graduated in one of the fields I wrote earlier in the post.

neahyo:
Bro, can I send you a PM?

Sure

Hey there Nairalanders.
I wanted to bring up something that I noticed recently while at work and that may well be a job opportunity for whoever is interested - in the area on North Italy where I live (Milan) there is a huge shortage of decently skilled Data Analysts (and I mean huge - the "local data scientist that sucks at his/her job" is kinda of a local running gag).

If any of you is interested, I'd advise you to upload your CV on either monster.it or indeed.it and try to apply over there. Please take notice that, while it is absolutely normal to expect that if someone hired you from abroad he would speak English, speakers of said language are kinda rare over here and thus having at least a decent command of the potential employer language will help you.

It might very well be a waste of time but since I noticed that even the studio I am contracting for hired some people abroad (telecommuting), some of you might be interested. Before anybody asks - no, I do not hire, nor do I know personally people that hire for said position abroad; this is simply me bringing an opportunity to the attention of the forum.

First: if your boss thinks you can learn everything involved with online marketing in a single week he has a problem in the head; moreso, if he thinks it was your fault he has a major problem up there.

Having said that, let's try to help you out: a good starting point to get a general understanding is Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/), or the everpresent Youtube (on which you can gind a ''thousand thousands'' videos about online marketing, but look out for bs).

Apart from that, you'll need at minimum the basics of AdWords, Google Analytics and how to research ads effectiveness - I personally used youtube adn the ''4 hours workweek'' by Ferris (the ads section has a good -if dated- rundown of the basis of the last point).

Sincerely, try to get through all this and survive this week to keep your job, but in the longer term, I'd just get my Google certification and set up shop for international clients as a side-gig (which might very well evolve in a full-time job given how a good chunk of online marketers are very bad at their job - at least in Europe is like that, dunno over there sorry)

Wanted to become an mechanical engineer for passion; ended up becoming an actuary for the easy life. A big regret.

80k seems a bit little to think about marriage to be honest, even in Nigeria..but it's just my opinion and given how out of context I am, it might be worth very little.